India’s head coach Manuel Marquez expressed his disappointment after a 3-0 loss against Syria in the Intercontinental Cup. The Spaniard admitted they were not brave enough in the first half and the players even looked scared in the first few minutes of the game.

The Blue Tigers could have been down by two or three goals in the first 15 minutes of play as they couldn’t bring their best. Mahmoud Alaswad scored the opening goal in the seventh minute for Syria after mundane defending from the hosts. Daleho Irandust and Pablo Sabbag scored in the second half to give a thumping win to their team.

Edmund Lalrindika and Lallianzuala Chhangte had opportunities in the second half but couldn’t grab them. The home team also took a total of 18 shots and had more possession than the visitors but ended on the wrong side of the result.

Manuel Marquez said after the loss, “I am angry with the first half. I don’t like teams who are scared. We were completely scared in the first few minutes. Their goal was an action we could avoid. I’m satisfied with the second half. I think 3-0 is not what happened in the game. I think we at least deserved to the score. It was a very similar game to Syria vs Mauritius. They have very good players in counter-attack, and they killed us. We need to keep going. I repeat, in the second half, not only the attitude, the positioning, we were brave.”

He added, “At least today we had chances. The other day, practically, we didn’t arrive. Today we created some chances. We will score, yes, but today, I think we cannot say anything about not having this player or that player. The goalkeeper saved two or three very difficult balls. The performance in the second half is a positive. The team was 1000 times better in the second half than in the first half. We were very brave.”

With this loss, India’s miserable run in 2024 continued and Marquez will want to turn the tables soon.